Is she cursed or what? If not, why will unhappiness and rejection trail her life from her father to the man her heart falls in love with?
Ulioma discovers the man who bestrides her dreams and waking hours is a prince destined to marry a princess. She is just a palace maid, yet fate brings them together and entangles their hearts.
Ikeobi knows fate has plans for Ulioma in his life, but he is not yet certain if he will play along or not.
Chapter One
“Ugodiya, push. I can see the baby’s head,” Ojiugo, the midwife, coaxed.
Ugodiya whimpered weakly and took a breath, probably to gather her strength. She pushed.
Lightning glided past the room, and thunder roared, fierce and ominous. The hut shook.
“Amadioha!” The midwife’s plump body shook as she looked up.
Just then, a baby’s shrill cry pierced the air. Ojiugo looked down, and her mouth dropped open. But seeing the baby, a smile broke over her round face. The exhaustion of the past four hours of dealing with her patient’s convoluted labour evaporated.
She brought out a short knife and cut off the umbilical cord. With a sigh of relief, she lifted the baby. A girl; wrinkly, hairless, and covered in gunk.
Passing the squirming baby to her assistant with instructions to clean her up properly, she turned to attend to the child’s mother. Ugodiya’s pants were feeble, having lost so much blood. Ojiugo took care of the afterbirth, bagged the placenta, and kept it aside for Ugodiya’s family to collect later.
She took the baby from her assistant, wrapped the child with a wrapper and laid her on a raised part of the birthing room designed for the purpose.
“What did I give birth to?” Ugodiya asked, her voice faint.
“A baby girl,” Ojiugo told her with a smile and prayed her heart to the gods to spare Ugodiya’s life to take care of her daughter.
“Ulioma,” Ugodiya mumbled and closed her eyes.
“A beautiful name,” Ojiugo said and sent her assistant out to tell Ihuoma that Ugodiya had delivered safely and informed her to go home and bring food for her sister.
As the assistant left, the baby let out a shrill cry. Ojiugo rushed to the crib, lifted the child, took a few steps to the bamboo bed and placed her in the mother’s arm. She noticed the woman didn’t respond. Ojiugo shook her gently when she still didn’t respond. She took the screaming child back to the crib and returned to the woman. She checked for a pulse and found none.
Ojiugo shook her head and stared at Ugodiya’s pretty, dark face. Life wasn’t fair, she mused. How could the child start life without her mother, not even a slight feeling of warmth in her mother’s arms or suckling at her breast?
She straightened Ugodiya’s hands and covered her with a wrapper. Taking the wailing child, she went out and closed the door.
When Ihuoma returned with food for her sister, Ojiugo led her to another side of the thatched house and told her Ugodiya wouldn’t need the food anymore. Ihuoma stared at her in confusion until the meaning of Ojiugo’s word sank in, and a wail erupted from her throat before she collapsed in a heap.
Thrusting the crying baby into her assistant’s hand, Ojiugo bent to minister to the woman on the ground. It would be bad for her business if two women should die in her house in one day.
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